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Fire company gets new thermal camera

By Ed Harris
Editor
The Southington Fire Department, Company 2 in Plantsville, has a new thermal imaging camera that will help immensely on emergency calls.
The new thermal camera, an Eagle Attack, replaces an older thermal camera, the Eagle X, that the fire company has had for close to five years. The Eagle X is a bit bigger and bulkier and is still in use.
The Eagle X showed everything in black and white and temperatures over 1,000 degrees were shown in red. In contrast, the Eagle Attack showcases everything in full color. The varying colors describe the possible changes in temperature.
The new thermal camera cost $8,000.
“It is a very useful tool,” said firefighter Andrew Phillips. “These things have a thousand uses.”
Some of these uses include finding a fire in a wall, finding people or even other firefighters in smoky conditions and checking if a downed wire has electrified a guardrail.
“These are used for all kinds of calls,” said firefighter Doug Badgley. “They’re uses for everything.”
Comments? Email eharris@southingtonobserver.com.

By Ed HarrisThe thermal cameras shown at work gauging the temperature of a stove top flame at Engine Company 2 in Plantsville. The new Eagle Attack camera is the smaller one on the left.